The Other Side
by Goz
Summary: In the climactic finale to The Other Side, Sailor Chibi Moon and the Nega Scouts finally figure out who each other are, and someone dies. Aren't you glad it's over?
1. Part 1 - The First Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
Timeline Note: In 2004, after the (apparent) final battle with Queen Beryl, the Sailor Scouts finally chose to vanish from public view. And indeed, the evil forces of the universe remained markedly quiet - or at least subtle - until 2035. That would be where this story begins.  
  
Explanation: I wrote this two years ago as a Christmas present for Neko Rebera. (For the love of God, go review her fics already! She's driving me insane, here!) I'm posting it now because I have begun work on the next part of the series, having driven myself crazy scribbling down unrelated scenes for the past few months.  
As for "The Other Side", the bit you're about to read, I'm not particularly happy with it, but you don't have to read it, do you? In fact, why don't you go read "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes? Now, that's a good short story!  
  
Chorus: Da bee da bee dee da da da bee da bee dee da da da bee da bee dee da da da  
  
-  
  
Part 1  
  
-  
  
Ariane felt the quality of the air change as she stepped off the shuttle ramp and looked about apprehensively. Asahikawa Airport, where she had boarded the shuttle, seemed comparatively very small next to Tokyo Airport.  
  
She glanced around for someone holding a sign saying "Ariane Erhlic." She had been promised, when she left Asahikawa Orphanage, that someone from the Tokyo orphanage she was going to would be there to meet her. But she didn't see any signs at all, so she headed off to the baggage claim. Her photo had been sent to the orphanage, so she assumed that the person who came to pick her up would recognize her.  
  
At baggage claim, she inserted her ID card into the claim-machine. "Please wait," the little back-lit screen read. So she waited. And waited. Just as Ariane was gearing up to kick the machine, her duffel bags dropped with a thud into the slot. She winced and picked her bag up gingerly, hoping her decrepit old book-disk reader hadn't been broken. Of course, nothing seemed to work right these days - why *shouldn't* it break?  
  
Ariane picked up the bags and carried them back toward Terminal J-42, where the person from the orphanage would know to look for her. Her back twinged again - she had been tripped trying to get out of the fire at the orphanage, but hadn't mentioned the little pain to anyone. She could usually ignore that kind of thing. Unless, of course, she was carrying bags around an airport.  
  
When she reached the terminal she dropped her bags into a seat and immediately sat down in the next one, closing her eyes and sighing with relief. She promptly opened them again, and surveyed the area. It was an airport, like any other, however big, filled mostly with business travellers and vacationing families. She was surrounded by bawling children and grim-faced men and women in suits.  
  
Far from being tired, even though it was nearly eleven at night, Ariane felt optimistic and exhilerated. This changing orphanages thing was going to be an adventure! She had never even left Asahikawa before.  
  
She stood up and walked over to the window to watch the shuttles take off and land in the dark. And just beyond the landing pads, she could see the bright lights in the buildings of Tokyo...  
  
Ariane jumped and whirled, fists raised, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She relaxed when she saw the unpreposessing woman before her. "Yes?" said Ariane, annoyed with herself for her jumpiness. "May I help you?"  
  
The black-haired, brown-eyed woman behind her glanced at a piece of paper in her hand and asked, "Are you Ariane Erhlic or Andrea Carpenter?" "Ariane Erhlic." she replied, wondering at the note of strain in the woman's voice.  
  
The woman smiled. "That's a relief. I was afraid I'd have to search the whole airport to find you! I'm Connelly Potter, from New Hope Orphanage. I'm supposed to be picking you and another girl up."  
  
Ariane nodded and and walked over to get her luggage. Connelly followed her silently. As she gathered up her bags, Ariane asked "Who's the other girl? What does she look like? I could help you find her." "Her name is Andrea," Connelly replied. "As for what she looks like, I'm not sure. The two pictures I got are both of you. I guess it was some sort of error -" She was cut off by the startled look in Ariane's face as she stared over Connelly's shoulder. Connelly turned and followed Ariane's gaze, to the exit ramp of Terminal J -44.  
  
"My God," Connelly murmured. "Maybe it wasn't a mistake..." 


	2. Part 2 - The Second Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 2  
  
-  
  
On the Other Side of the border, something laughed at Andrea. She screamed in fury, but was aware that the scream did not go any farther than the bounds of her own mind.  
  
*Of which there are none,* someone familiar whispered. Andrea whirled, biting her hand to keep from screaming again. Relief washed over her as she saw Ket, not someone from the Other Side, standing a few paces behind her.  
  
*Oh, Ket,* she said tearfully. *Is it my fault? Did I cause it? The fire, I mean.* The older woman sighed and held out her arms to Andrea. Andrea rushed into her guardian's arms, comforted by the warmth. She had been cold for so long now...  
  
*No, kitten,* Ket murmured soothingly. *It was not you. I know who caused it...* Ket trailed off, and Andrea felt fear in her. Ket was afraid of almost nothing, and Andrea had learned never to ask Ket what she was afraid of. She never got an answer.  
  
Instead, she asked *Could I have stopped the fire?* Ket sighed again and held Andrea tighter. *You could have stopped it, had I warned you. But it's past now and there's nothing you or I can do...*  
  
Andrea pushed Ket away and glared at her. *If you could have helped me stop it, keep all those people from dying, why didn't you? Why DIDN'T you?!* Andrea burst into tears and collapsed on the ground, caught between conflicting loyalties.  
  
Ket knelt beside her pupil and placed a hand on the top of Andrea's head. Andrea immediately felt drowsy and safe, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.  
  
-  
  
Andrea woke at the *bump* as the shuttle hit the ground, and glanced around instinctively to see if there was anything she needed to pick up. There wasn't. All she had left after the fire had been a few articles of clothing, which were in her suitcase. She had been told that her anonymous benefactor was allowing her a fifty-thousand yen shopping spree once she got to Tokyo.  
  
Andrea knew she was very lucky, having someone finance everything she needed. She didn't feel lucky. She felt tired - it has been a very short flight, and she hadn't gotten in much sleep - and old, older than dirt... and lower than dirt. Why was her life such a blur?  
  
She really didn't want to think about that right now.  
  
Andrea stared out the window moodily as the shuttle taxied about the runway. It was dark enough outside that all she saw was her reflection. Violet eyes, red hair, freckles - what she always saw. She never felt like it was *her*, though... No, she didn't want to think.  
  
She forced herself to turn her thoughts to reality, and the new orphanage she was going to. She knew nothing about it, except its name, "New Hope." Andrea couldn't stand that kind of irony. She wondered if anyone would be coming to pick her up at the airport - she was a little fuzzy on what was actually going to happen. She felt a surge of terror, and glanced outside again, trying not to speculate. She'd figure it out when she got inside.  
  
The shuttle had stopped moving, and inside, people were now gathering their belongings and standing up. Andrea, who had nothing to carry, stood up also. The man in the blue suit who had been sitting beside her was already in the aisle. He had ignored her throughout the whole flight, for which Andrea had been grateful.  
  
She walked slowly behind him, trying to make herself as small as possible. The cold air bit her as she walked onto the ramp, and she pulled her old green jacket as close to her as possible. She wished her gloves had survived the fire, and felt like crying. Those gloves had been special to her, and now they were gone, along with everything she had ever known.  
  
*We can live without it,* a thought growled. Andrea ignored that.  
  
She walked off the ramp into the airport, glancing around looking for a sign that said "Luggage Claim." Anyone who wanted her would find her. She wandered a little dizzily over to the electronic map in the wall next to the terminal and tapped out a query. The device, after beeping rather alarmingly for several seconds, gave her directions to luggage claim.  
  
Andrea didn't get more than fifty feet before she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She was too tired to be startled, and turned around slowly. The woman was staring at her in shock, and Andrea would have been confused if she'd had the energy. She didn't know why she was so tired...  
  
"Are you Andrea Carpenter?" asked the woman anxiously, glancing over her shoulder to someone Andrea didn't have the energy to track down.  
  
"Yes," replied Andrea, vaguely relieved that she wouldn't have to try to page someone. "Are you from the orphanage?"  
  
The woman smiled nervously. "Yes, and my name is Connelly Potter. Have you ever heard of a person named Ariane Erhlic?" she said the last hastily, once again looking over her shoulder.  
  
"No..." Andrea said. "Why?"  
  
Connelly turned around and waved to someone in the crowd. Andrea leaned against the wall and stared at the ground. She was too sleepy to be curious... until she felt another tap and looked up into her own face. 


	3. Part 3 - The Third Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 3  
  
-  
  
Andrea lost her balance and stumbled into the wall.  
  
"Andrea Carpenter," said Connelly, breaking the awkward silence. "This is Ariane Erhlic."  
  
Andrea looked from Connelly to Ariane, then back again. "Is this a joke or something?" Their shocked expressions answered her question. "No, I guess not. What..." she trailed off, unsure of what she was going to say.  
  
"What's going on here?" finished Ariane, smiling shakily. "I haven't the slightest, and I doubt Ms. Potter does either. But nothing can be solved this late at night. I say we head to the orphanage and work this out in the morning."  
  
Connelly smiled in relief. "A fine notion," she agreed. "Maybe we can do some DNA testing or something to work it out. I swear, this sounds like the plot to a TV show!" She turned and walked away, with a glance over her shoulder to the girls. Ariane followed, and after a moment, Andrea did, too.  
  
-  
  
Andrea curled up in the back seat of Connelly's beat up old minivan. She was halfway paying attention to the conversation going on in the front seat, and halfway asleep. As she stared at her reflection in the window, she thought irrelevantly *Ariane's hair is shorter than mine.*  
  
"I swear," Connelly was saying, apparently unaware that she was repeating herself. "This sounds just like the plot to a soap opera."  
  
Ariane laughed a bit hysterically, and Andrea wondered if Ariane had a dimple on her left cheek, too. "It sounds like the plot to a cartoon, I think. I wonder if this is just a coincidence, or if we're somehow related."  
  
"Somehow related, I'd say," opined Connelly gleefully. "A set of twins, separated at birth and reunited. I *love* it!"  
  
Ariane sounded very slightly irritated. "Don't get your hopes up. But you were probably right earlier, we should get some DNA testing done. If the orphanage will finance it, that is."  
  
Connelly said, "You needn't worry about that. Andrea's file says that she's being watched over by some mysterious figure from her past. He - or she - sends money for Andrea everytime she gets in trouble. He's paying for a shopping spree for her to help her get settled in. Her file says just about everything she owns was destroyed in the fire at her last orphanage."  
  
"Hmmm," said Ariane. Andrea felt rather than saw her backward glance - she didn't open her eyes.  
  
After a silence, Ariane said "I wonder if, if we're related, he'll start giving me money, too..." Connelly just laughed. "Your fire didn't touch most of your stuff. You were very lucky, you know."  
  
"And there's another weird thing. We both had to come to another orphanage because of fires. That's just... weird." Andrea could think of much better words, and from the frightened note in Ariane's voice, so could she.  
  
"Kismet," Connelly said cheerfully. Then her tone finally turned serious. "Actually, this smacks of something a little more serious. The fire at your orphanage took place at 2:30 AM on October 21, 2006. And the fire at Osaka took place somewhere around that, I don't remember exactly when -"  
  
"2:30 AM, October 21." said Andrea thickly from the back seat. She wasn't going to force herself to wake up - she didn't *want* to take part in this strange conversation.  
  
"I don't think so," said Connelly, her voice hardening. "That can't be a coincidence."  
  
"Exactly," said Ariane and Andrea simultaneously. There was a moment of silence before Ariane and Connelly started laughing shakily. Andrea smiled weakly and curled around herself tighter. 


	4. Part 4 - The Fourth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
Random note: Yes, every chapter is short, isn't it? I promise this one is the shortest, though.  
  
-  
  
Part 4  
  
-  
  
Ariane and Andrea sat uncomfortably in the docter's office, Ariane occasionally glancing at the other. They had both given the docters blood samples without incident, though both had turned slightly green when they saw the red liquid filling the tube. The docters had promised that the samples would be analyzed within twenty minutes, but it had been nearly forty-five now. Connelly had promised to pick them up in an hour. Ariane naturally expected that she would be late, too.  
  
Andrea glanced at her watch, and Ariane, noticing the slight movement of the other's head, commented, "No matter how much the news talks about exponential medical advances, docters are still always running late." She was rewarded by a wan smile from Andrea.  
  
Ariane watched her for a moment, but Andrea had returned her gaze to a point on the wall above the people opposite them. Ariane sighed and leafed through the magazines on the table next to her, hoping to find something interesting that she had missed the last few times. There was nothing.  
  
She wished again that she had thought to bring the book she was reading. Her mind drifted back to it. It was a historical book about the Sailor Scouts and their many triumphs over evil. But after the last battle, with the resurrected Queen Beryl, they had all disappeared. They had left behind a piece of paper saying "We will be back when we are once again needed" - some freak had stolen it from the government a few years later.  
  
*Sailor Mercury had my birthday,* she mused to herself. She blinked, realizing that she had completely overlooked that.  
  
"Andrea," she said, turning to her probable sister. "What's your birthday?" A woman sitting across the room stared at them, and a child a few seats away whispered to his father "But aren't they twins?"  
  
"September tenth," Andrea replied in a monotone, without moving her gaze from the wall. Ariane smiled slightly. Now, she had no doubt. 


	5. Part 5 - The Fifth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
Note: This part, again, contains no action. The next does. Really. I promise.  
  
-  
  
Part 5  
  
-  
  
"So, what did he say?" asked Connelly casually. Andrea scowled at the back of Connelly's seat. Connelly just wasn't taking this seriously - she just didn't seem to realize how vital this was going to be for them.  
  
A sensous voice whispered in Andrea's left ear "And it *is* going to be vital." Andrea sat straight up and tried to look around for the source of the voice without moving her head. That wasn't normal, not even for Andrea. "Did either of you hear that?" she asked uneasily before Ariane could answer Connelly's question.  
  
"Hear what?" asked Connelly.  
  
"Guess not," replied Ariane dryly. "What did you hear?"  
  
"Never mind. It's not important." Probably not...  
  
"Well, anywho, then docter confirmed that we are, indeed twins!" Ariane announced uncertainly.  
  
"As if there was ever any doubt!" said Connelly cheerfully. "Now, all we've got to do is to figure out how you two got separated in the first place. And that's going to be much harder." Not that she didn't sound as heedlessly optimistic as always. Andrea suspected that that would soon get annoying.  
  
"I know how we got separated," said Andrea.  
  
"Beg pardon?" asked Connelly, sounding stunned. Simultaneously, Ariane said, "You do?" Her tone said that Andrea had darn well better explain.  
  
Andrea timidly replied, "I kind of do, anyway."  
  
"Tell us," said Connelly flatly. Ariane shot her an odd look.  
  
"I lived with my father for several years, " said Andrea. "He was not a nice man. *I don't want to talk about that.*"  
  
Andrea was silent for several minutes. She saw Ariane and Connelly exchanged halfway panicked glances. Connelly had slowed the car to a crawl, and people were giving them irritated glances.  
  
"One day, I threatened to tell someone what he'd been doing. When he didn't stop, I went to my school counselor. She sent me into foster care, and my father just disappeared. The foster care eventually got me into an orphanage." She spoke as though she was reading aloud. "But the point is, I got a message from my father on the day he disappeared. The woman I was staying with then said that a man had called and said 'I should have given up on you, like the other one. *She* never hurt me.'" 


	6. Part 6 - The Sixth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
Note: I didn't say a *lot* of action. But I posted the next two, too...  
  
-  
  
Part 6  
  
-  
  
Ariane stared at the ceiling of her bedroom. She had been at the orphanage a week now, and had become accustomed to studying the stucco ceiling for hours before going to sleep. Glances at the clock punctuated her insomniac nights. She looked over at the glowing digital clock on the nightstand. It was three AM.  
  
She sighed and rolled over to stare out the window. A car was slowly circling the parking lot. She stared at it for a moment before rolling over again and staring at the door. She heard footsteps outside and tensed, expecting at any moment to see it open and...  
  
What was she expecting, anyway? Andrea? Her father? She didn't know. She didn't know anything.  
  
Ariane had been searching her memories for anything that would prove Andrea's story to be right... or wrong. She honestly couldn't decide which she would rather have. Would it be better to have no past, or such an awful one?  
  
But preferences aside, Ariane had no memory of her father. Someplace very far back, she had a very foggy memory, more of a picture, of a woman with red hair and violet eyes. Maybe it was her mother, maybe it was just a baby-sitter or nurse. Who could tell?  
  
Ariane felt something wrong just moments before she smelled the smoke. She flung herself out of bed and threw the door open violently. A fire was crackling somewhere to the left, and Ariane flew down the hallway. She turned a corner and discovered that the entire corridor was aflame. She rushed back into the other hall, screaming. She stopped short half-way back to her room; Andrea's bedroom was in the part of the hall that was burning! She ran all the way to the opposite end of the hall and pounded on Connelly's door. She was still pounding when Connelly opened the door a crack and looked out.  
  
"What is it -" she began blearily, then her eyes widened. "Oh, shit, there's a *fire*, isn't there? What's burning?"  
  
"The whole east hall!" said Ariane frantically. "We've got to get everyone out of here!" Connelly opened her door the rest of the way and zoomed out towards the doors nearest the fire. A small part of Ariane was mildly amused to see that Connelly's pajamas had cows and moons on them. The rest of her was still panicking.  
  
She turned away from Connelly and ran the rest of the way down the hall to the fire alarm. As she pulled it and heard the buzzing resounding through the halls, she berated herself fiercely for not doing this earlier. After a few seconds of waiting for people to come out into the halls, Ariane lost what little patience she had left and started racing down the hall, screaming "Fire! Fire!"  
  
Connelly was already going into people's rooms and dragging them out. The nearest exit was blocked by the fire, so Ariane shrieked, noting her own hysteria with vague amusement, "Follow me!" and rushed down to the western hall to the other exit. Other people were emerging stunned from their rooms as she ran by, and she stifled a moment of embarrassment for her blue nightshirt.  
  
Outside, Ariane heard fire copters' sirens, familiar from the last time this had happened. "Oh, they're here already!" she exclaimed to no one in relief. She glanced around the quickly growing throng for Connelly and Andrea, the only two people at the orphanage she was more than casually acqainted with. She saw Connelly standing by the door, rushing people out into the parking lot, but couldn't find Andrea anywhere. She shoved her way through the terrified crowd to the door.  
  
"Connelly!" she yelled over the noise of the other orphans. "Has Andrea come out yet?"  
  
Connelly cocked her head and Ariane repeated her shouted query. Rather than waste breath yelling, Connelly shook her head. Ariane tried to push past her to get inside, but Connelly pushed her back and shook her head again.  
  
Ariane retreated back into the crowd in resignation. *Please, don't let her be hurt,* she silently pled. But somewhere she thought she remembered seeing Andrea smirk and say, "Fire? Hurt *me*? Come on, Ari, remember who I *am*!..." 


	7. Part 7 - The Seventh Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 7  
  
-  
  
Apparently, no one had heard her wish. Though no one had been killed, there were seven major burns, nine smoke inhalation cases, and one person hit on the head by a falling beam. The latter case was Andrea.  
  
Ariane sat, sweating in apprehension, in the waiting area of the hospital. Connelly had taken her there to try to get them both in to see Andrea, but could only get herself in. Connelly had gone to her room half an hour ago, leaving Andrea to cry inwardly in a vinyl chair.  
  
After what seemed like days to Ariane's internal clock, Connelly came into the waiting area, looking very grave and somber.  
  
She gestured for Ariane to follow her outside.  
  
Once they were in the car, Connelly broke the news. "It's more serious than they originally thought. The beam didn't just knock her unconscious. It put her into a coma."  
  
"Is she going to die?" asked Ariane in a choked voice. Even though she had only know her for a week, she had really begun to feel like Andrea was her sister.  
  
Connelly shook her head, and Ariane was temporarily reassured, before Connelly's next words dashed her hopes. "No, she's not going to die, but the docters aren't sure they can wake her up any time soon. They've seen people stay in this type of coma for years."  
  
"Years." The word echoed in her head. She might not be able to talk to Andrea for years.  
  
*I just got you back, and now you're gone again!* Arianes mind wailed, as she let the tears flow and Connelly, herself crying, patted her shoulder soothingly.  
  
-  
  
Ariane found herself again staring at the ceiling. She was exhausted, emotionally and physically. She felt she had no tears left.  
  
She forced herself to shut her eyes, and felt herself sliding into something unlike a dream.  
  
-  
  
*Ariane,* a voice hissed in her left ear. She swirled and saw nothing. She glanced down and saw that she was wearing long, dark sea-green gloves, a brown leotard with large, navy bow on it, a short, sea-green skirt, and navy sandles.  
  
She turned around again as she felt a hand on her shoulder. This time, she saw a person standing there. He - or perhaps she - was half a head shorter than she, and wearing a black cloak that showed nothing of the wearer.  
  
*Ariane,* the voice said again - only it wasn't quite a voice, it was something she heard inside her head - *Remember this; Cassiopeia Constellation Power.*  
  
*What?!*  
  
*Remember...* 


	8. Part 8 - The Eighth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 8  
  
-  
  
The five-square-foot Vid-Teacher embedded in the wall of the classroom was the pinnacle of teaching technology. It could instantly provide lessons in any subject sanctioned by the Japanese government, including nineteen different languages, over seventeen thousand pieces of international literature, and and four levels of difficulty in any math lesson.  
  
Naturally, Connelly had put a poster of dolphins over it the day she had started work.  
  
Ariane had to admire Connelly's energy. She never stopped moving and talking for a moment during any of the three classes she taught; Algebra, Biology, and Literature. Yet she managed to make sure that everyone understood everything.  
  
Right now, however, Ariane was not paying any attention to the fascinating lecture on "Flowers for Algernon," though she had loved the translation of the book when she had read it in the last few days. Her attention was divided between black thoughts of Andrea and the black car that kept circling the parking lot. It looked kind of familiar... *oh, right.*  
  
Finally, she raised her hand, feeling only slightly foolish. "Yes, do you have a question, Ariane?" Connelly always stopped everything when Ariane or Andrea had something to say - it was kind of embarrassing.  
  
"That car out there that keeps circling - I think I saw it out there during the fire -" she began. Everyone turned toward the window and started whispering. Ariane and Connelly winced identically as the car stopped. *Damn,* thought Ariane. *I should have said for no one to show that we'd noticed them -*  
  
A blond-haired man in a grey suit jumped out of the passengers' side door, and the car sped away. Everyone watched and murmured as he quickly walked straight toward the window. Connelly put her book down, looking very alarmed. Suddenly, he was in front of the window and jumping straight at it. The glass shattered and class screamed and covered their heads. Ariane froze as she ducked her head, feeling a memory of something - like this - tickling the back of her mind.  
  
Ariane looked up sharply and saw that the man had vanished. Standing - well, you could call it standing - by the window was what appeared to be a huge octopus, except that it seemed to have a lot more tentacles, and was purple and dripping green slime, and was *glowing* - *Nope, definitely not an octopus.* Connelly, the idiot, was running towards the paralyzed boy at the desk nearest the creature. It laughed - it had a voice oddly reminiscent of a kettledrum - and whipped a tentacle around the boy. He screamed piercingly, his body glowing green, as Connelly jumped backwards, looking indignant.  
  
The rest of the class was a chaos of screams and overturned desks. But Ariane sat very still at the voice in her mind; the voice from the dream she had forgotten about until now. *By your foot,* it whispered. Ariane looked down and saw a dark blue wand with a green star on it. *Hold it up, and say what I told you.*  
  
Ariane glanced around sharply, but no one was looking at her. All but Connelly - who had apparently given up any dreams of saving the day - and the two girls she was trying to drag away from their desks, had fled. *It's the voice from my dream - and I *remember* that phrase now!* She picked up the wand, held it high in the air, and yelled "Cassiopeia Constellation Power!"  
  
She felt herself rising in the air. She felt her blue jeans and yellow sweatshirt dissolving, and glanced down as the outfit from her dream formed around her. Sea-green skirt, sea-green gloves, navy sandles, brown leotard with a navy bow, and something wrapping around her forehead.  
  
Somewhere very nearby, someone smiled proudly.  
  
*Good,* the voice said, as Ariane was lowered to the ground. *Now say "Cassiopeia Hurricane Rain!"*  
  
Almost instinctively, Ariane gestured toward the monster and yelled "Cassopeia Hurricane Rain!" It felt very natural, as though she'd been doing it all her life.  
  
The monster let out a roar as a blast of dirty aqua water, glowing with a hit it. It produced a glob of green slime, and threw it expertly at her. She dodged to the left, but a bit of it landed on her ankle. It burned. She winced, and somehow didn't need any coaching from the voice to say "Cassiopeia Calling Wind!"  
  
A huge gust of wind swept up the glass on the floor of the room and hit the monster. It roared again, in defeat. A bright light filled the room, and when her eyes were no longer dazzled, Ariane saw that the monster was gone. The room stank, and was bedecked with purple and green globs.  
  
She glanced around and saw that the girls had escaped during the short fight. But she heard footsteps pounding the hallway - Connelly was yelling frustratedly, "*Ariane* -"  
  
*You did a good job,* said the voice in a satisfied tone, possibly unaware of the madwoman. *But it'll happen again, and you'll need to work harder. To change back to yourself, just concentrate hard on a picture of yourself as you usually are. I'll talk to you more later.* 


	9. Part 9 - The Ninth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 9  
  
-  
  
Almost as soon as she climbed in bed, Ariane the voice returned again.  
  
*Ariane.*  
  
"Yes..." she murmured, then tried *thinking* the words, *Who are you?*  
  
*My name's Ket. I'm - Andrea's friend, I guess you'd say.* The voice - old and female - sounded tired and bemused.  
  
*But what are you?!* she thought frustratedly.  
  
*I'm a guardian. You don't need to know anything else about me now. But I know a way you can help Andrea.*  
  
*You do?* Ariane waited for a reply for what seemed to her a very long time. *Are you still there?* she asked timorously.  
  
*Yes, I'm still here. I'd planned to tell Andrea this stuff first -* Ariane was a little disillusioned by the mysterious voice's use of the word "stuff". *But there's no help for it. You must go to visit Andrea in the hospital. You still have your wand, don't you?*  
  
*Yes...* It was on her nightstand, hidden in a tissue box. She'd spent nearly half an hour fretting over the best place to keep it.  
  
*You must take the wand and transform again. Then you must hold your hands over her and say "Cassiopeia Healing Slumber!"*  
  
*It'll bring her out of the coma?!*  
  
*Just do it. I'll tell you more later.*  
  
The voice went silent, and Ariane closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep, knowing that she wouldn't.  
  
-  
  
Ariane stood over Andrea's bed and stared at the vaguely surprised face of her twin. *I wonder if people dream in comas,* she thought irrelevantly. The sight of the young girl in a worn hospital gown, a bloody pad taped to her forehead, sickened her to the core. This sort of thing happened all the time, by accident. And *fighting* -  
  
She reached into her pocket and removed her wand, glancing around surreptitiously. After runnning the wand through the scanner several times and finding nothing dangerous, the staff had reluctantly allowed Ariane to bring it in. Ariane had assured them that it was a good-luck charm she had made that she wanted to leave with Andrea. She couldn't think why hospital security had to be so stringent.  
  
She held it over her head and said quietly "Cassiopeia Constellation Power!" When it was over, she glanced back at the door. It wouldn't close all the way, but the nurse had assured her that the rooms weren't monitored. It didn't seem in keeping with the hospital's other precautions, but there were no monitoring devices in this room that she could find, and really, she would have done it regardless. No one ever believed it when stuff like that was caught on tape, anyway.  
  
She held the wand over her sister's prone body and said "Cassiopeia Healing Slumber!" as loudly as she dared. The space around her glowed deep aquamarine, and the air seemed to *thicken*. Ariane thought for a moment that she saw Andrea's eyes open in startlement.  
  
Andrea was lying unconscious and completely unchanged. *Nothing's happened,* thought Ariane, panicked.  
  
Then the monitors nearby bleeped in alarm, and Ariane, relieved that *something* had happened, quickly detransformed and walked out into the hallway. The nurse was standing at the monitoring station, nibbling a bagel and paying no attention to the screens.  
  
"Hey," Ariane yelled, not needing to feign agitation, "The monitors over Andrea are acting weird! *Quick*, what's wrong?!"  
  
The nurse blinked and poked at the screen of one of the monitors. She stepped backwards in surprise, then rushed into Andrea's room. Ariane heard a gasp from inside, and smiled to herself. 


	10. Part 10 - The Tenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 10  
  
-  
  
All her life, Andrea had felt like she was staring death in the eye, and she had been certain that she had finally blinked.  
  
The scent of smoke had roused her, and she had fallen out of bed and stumbled to the door. The knob had burnt her hand - *why* had she asked for a room with no windows, she had wondered. As she had struggled to open the door with her hand inadequately insulated inside the sleeve of her pajamas, she had heard a crack above her. She had just looked up in time to see a piece of the ceiling crashing down on her.  
  
Andrea didn't quite realize that she was awake for a long time. *The afterlife is a hospital room,* she thought drowsily at one point. Then her eyes opened wide, and she struggled to sit up. Pain suddenly erupted in her head, and she plopped back down on the pillow.  
  
*So, I'm not dead,* she mused, struggling to push away the throbbing in her skull.  
  
She laid very still for several minutes longer, minutely observing everything around her in an effort to stir some reaction to being alive. Her concentration was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. With an effort, she ignored her headache long enough to turn her head to see who had come in.  
  
The portly, grey-haired nurse standing in the door was smiling with relief. "Well, I see you're awake. I must say, you gave us quite a scare there for a while! When your sister came in-"  
  
"My sister?" Andrea interrupted startled. "Oh, Ariane," she said at the same time as the nurse said, in a baffled tone, "Ariane, your twin."  
  
The nurse stared at Andrea for a moment as she blushed, then continued somewhat puzzledly, "Well, anyway, your sister came in - she was only with you for a minute before she ran out and said that the monitors were changing. I checked it out, and you'd just come right out of that coma!"  
  
"I was in a coma?" Andrea marvelled. *A very indiscreet nurse,* she thought somewhat bemusedly. "I thought - when can I leave?" she demanded. It had just dawned on her that they hadn't expected her to come out of the coma, and if they hadn't - something unexpected had happened to make the change, and surprises were always more than just surprises.  
  
The nurse walked over to the wall computer and tapped out a command. She smiled at Andrea as she waited for the information to load. "This may take a minute; the machine has to take into account everything that happened to you, your metabolism, the number of white blood cells - uh?!" The nurse flinched as though the computer had shocked her. "Well, what do you know!" she said to herself, then turned to Andrea, smiling slightly confusedly. "Looks like you'll be able to leave within the next three days..." she stared at the screen for a few seconds, as if expecting it to change its reply.  
  
"Well!" she said after a moment. "I'll bet you're hungry! I'll go get some soup for you right away!"  
  
-  
  
Andrea had recovered enough by the next morning that she could go to the bathroom by herself, a considerable relief to her. She had no trouble keeping down soup and crackers, and was chafing with boredom when Ariane and Connelly came to visit.  
  
It was an odd visit. Connelly seemed to be dancing on eggshells, trying to avoid some apparent taboo topic. Ariane was watching both of them closely, and talked little. Andrea thought she caught a trace of a smirk on Ariane's face while Connelly was talking about the "miraculous recovery".  
  
"Ariane," Andrea felt compelled to ask, as they were leaving, "Do you know *how* I got better?"  
  
Ariane started as she walked out the door, but continued on and made no other indication that she'd heard.  
  
Connelly spared Ariane an irritated look, then told Andrea hurriedly, "The docters don't know how it happened. All they know is that the brain tissue that had been damaged has regenerated."  
  
That wasn't good enough, but Andrea thought she knew a better person to ask.  
  
-  
  
Andrea stood at the edge of the border, contemplating the grass at her feet. The border was not exactly visible, but she knew exactly where it was. If she crossed over it - she shuddered and turned her back on it, in a conscious refusal.  
  
*Andrea,* said someone behind her. She turned and saw Ket standing a few paces away. She never got used to her guardian's sudden appearances and disappearances.  
  
*Hello, Ket,* said Andrea quietly. *Where have you been?*  
  
*Talking. I'm trying to make peace with the Other Side. I've brought some people to talk with you...* The emaciated, grey-haired woman turned and gestured at the darkness across the border. Two figures emerged into the small, mysteriously lighted area that always surrounded Andrea. They were men about twenty years old, but the tilt of their heads obscured their features.  
  
*Hello, Andrea,* said the first one. She wished she could see their faces more clearly, but when the other echoed his greeting in the same voice, she knew that they were twins.  
  
*Who are you?* Andrea asked, regarding them suspiciously.  
  
*I'm Curran and he's Colwyn - we're employees of your grandmother,* said the first. They looked up enough to exchange smug glances as Ket's shoulders stiffened.  
  
*My grandmother... Who is she?* Ket had always told Andrea that her mother's mother was more important than her parents. **Well*,* began one of the two, but Ket gestured sharply at him, her face very severe, and he fell silent. The twins wore identical smirks.  
  
Ket informed them coldly, *Someone else will tell her that -* *Who?* Andrea interrupted, her impatience in a rare moment getting the better of her. She was *tired* of the dissembling.  
  
Ket hesitated a moment. *When you are alone with Ariane and Connelly, say to Connelly "Hydra and Cassiopeia are bright tonight." She will explain everything. Now, remember what you saw.* "Next time, think *very* carefully before you speak," that meant. Andrea lowered her head slightly, chastened.  
  
*We'll be back to tell you more after you've talked with Connelly.* Ket pointed towards the Other Side, and Curran and Colwyn followed her past Andrea into the dark.  
  
Andrea decided, *Something didn't go right.* 


	11. Part 11 - The Eleventh Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 11  
  
-  
  
"Hydra and Cassiopeia are bright tonight." Connelly and Ariane turned to stare at Andrea as she said the words, and she blushed hotly, wondering once again if she were just imagining Ket and all she said and meant. She was glad that the dark hid her face - she was sure that her embarrassment at the trite phrase would have betrayed her.  
  
Connelly had invited Ariane and Andrea out for a walk in the park in celebration of Andrea's release from the hospital earlier in the evening. Andrea still had a bandage on her head over a burn, and had a bald patch where her hair had been singed, but was otherwise completely recovered.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ariane asked guardedly, glancing at the sky. It was a moonless night, and too cloudy for any stars to be seen.  
  
Connelly gestured to the clouds. Her expression was very grim. "Listen, let's head over to that gazebo over there - it's going to rain any second, and I have something important to tell you both."  
  
Ariane followed giddily, sitting down hard on the bench. Ariane gave her an odd, look, but she ignored it. For the first time, she *knew* that the world inside her head was real! But relief was quickly replaced by curiosity, and more than a little fear. What did Connelly have to tell them? Why *Connelly*?  
  
"Now," said Connelly, looking more serious than Andrea had yet seen her. "You both know about the monster that attacked the orphanage yesterday, and about the mysterious person who fought it off. As you have probably guessed, that monster was from the Negaverse."  
  
Ariane nodded impatiently, but Andrea just blinked. She had been told about the monster by one of her classmates, but hadn't thought much about it. She had had problems that had seemed much more serious at the time. Andrea was very reluctantly coming to the realization that she was going to have to pay more attention to the real world.  
  
"What *you* probably don't know, Andrea," said Connelly, catching Andrea's downcast eyes. "Is that the warrior was Sailor Cassiopeia - known to you as Ariane."  
  
Andrea fell off her seat. "Sailor Cassiopeia?" she asked faintly. Ariane helped her up, her attention clearly still on Connelly. "A Sailor Scout? How..." she trailed off and looked back and forth between the two. Ariane was staring intensely at Connelly, her left hand tensing beside her pocket as though a weapon were hidden there. Connelly grimaced.  
  
"I'll have to explain this to you two a bit more thoroughly." Connelly spoke with rehearsed cadences, as though she had been saving up the words for a long time. "The Sailor Scouts were the protectors of the Moon Kingdom. But you are two of the twelve warriors of the Negaverse."  
  
"Negaverse?!" the two interrupted in one voice. "We're *evil*?" asked Ariane, glancing around feverishly, looking for anyone who might be listening. The park was empty of people except for them, and silent except for chirping crickets. "Like *Queen Beryl*?"  
  
"I'm a scout, too?" Andrea's voice quavered. "I'm not sure..." she trailed off and said again, "The Negaverse?"  
  
Connelly continued with grim determination. "You are the grandchildren of Queen Beryl. She had one daughter, Calida, or Neo Queen Beryl. Calida was..." Connelly's voice faltered, and she glanced away quickly. "She had twelve children. You are the daughters of Prince Arlen of Earth, Prince Endymion's younger brother."  
  
*Royalty, alright,* someone muttered in Andrea's head.  
  
"When Calida was pregnant for the first time, Queen Beryl ordered her to have all of her children trained to fight against the Sailor Scouts. All twelve - all girls, somehow or other -" Connelly sounded a little suspicious. "Were trained to be the equals of the scouts, from the moment that they learned to walk. The Moon Kingdom's tactics were analyzed, imitated, and countered wherever possible. As a test to their training, each was made dictator of a constellation or star that the Negaverse had conquered the worlds of." *That* made Andrea flinch, and Ariane looked slightly ill. Connelly smiled uneasily, shrugging.  
  
"When Queen Beryl fell for the last time to the Sailor Scouts, Calida was prepared to send the oldest of her daughters to fight in Beryl's place. As you know, this was pointless, as the Sailor Scouts all disappeared shortly after this happened. Also, the new ruler of the Negaverse had a different plan in mind."  
  
"Queen Caprice, Beryl's younger sister - your great-aunt - was Beryl's successor. The Negaverse was in a state of utter turmoil at this point - there were possible heirs all around, and each had his own army ready to fight for the throne. Caprice was forced to stop all attempts to capture the earth, even without the Sailor Scouts there to obstruct her."  
  
"She knew that she would be able to put down the rebellions - she was an excellent tactician, and her armies were superior, for reasons too complicated to go into right now - but also that it would take at least twenty years. And she knew that she wanted someone in place on earth to begin an invasion when she was ready."  
  
"So. You were sent here. Eventually, anyway." Connelly looked slightly annoyed. "Caprice could, by the way, be bit capricious, and decided that she wanted the ages of the scouts kept straight, and it's taken me forever to figure out how old - but to backtrack a bit, Ariane ruled Cassiopeia, and Andrea ruled Hydra. And Andrea took with her Calida's Negamoon cat, Ket."  
  
Ignoring Andrea and Ariane's exclamations, Connelly went on doggedly, "I don't know how it happened, but Ket was killed. Sailor Hydra very bravely let Ket's spirit live in her own body." Connelly smiled a little painfully. "That's why it's so appropriate that Andrea is Sailor Hydra."  
  
Ariane had been listening attentively, and when the length of the silence indicated that Connelly was finally finished, she said, "That's all very interesting, but we don't have any proof of any of this. How do *you* know?" Her voice hardened.  
  
Connelly smiled secretively and pulled something out of her shirt pocket. It was a small brown wand with a black crescent moon at the tip...  
  
"Moon Reversal Power!" 


	12. Part 12 - The Twelfth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 12  
  
-  
  
Neo Queen Beryl stood before them, wearing a long black dress and black tiara. Her hair was now a brilliant red, and her brown eyes were violet.  
  
She smiled ironically. Ariane found Andrea's hand seeking hers, and she squeezed it comfortingly.  
  
"You're our..." said Ariane, stunned. "Even the hair and..." She shook her head sharply. This was all too much. "But... are we evil? You never answered that..." Ariane released her sister's hand and stood up very straight to face Neo Queen Beryl. "If you want me to side with the Negaverse, it's *not* gonna happen."  
  
Andrea nodded shortly and stood up, taking Ariane's hand again. They both stood in front of Neo Queen Beryl, mirror images of determination.  
  
And Neo Queen Beryl laughed.  
  
Ariane grabbed her transformation wand out of her pocket and held it up. "Cassiopeia -"  
  
Neo Queen Beryl swiftly barred Ariane's arm, shaking her head. "Relax, relax. I'm *not* asking you to do that. Though I'll admit it took me years to come to your conclusion." Connelly looked rueful. "Maybe I'm not very smart." Ariane lowered her hand cautiously, not by any means convinced. Connelly's wince suggested that she saw that, but she went on anyway. "That monster was sent because the Negaverse knew I'd sided with the Moon Kingdom."  
  
Andrea, who had stood stock-still through the aborted confrontation, abruptly sat down and buried her head in her hands. "Are you alright?" Ariane and Connelly asked in one voice. Connelly smirked slightly, and Ariane stiffened.  
  
Andrea shuddered once and looked up, biting her lip and trying to smile. "I'm okay... I'm just so glad you're not evil... Calida." Andrea shook her head - Ariane knew why immediately. *She* wasn't going to be calling this woman "Mother" any time soon. Neo Queen Beryl smiled slightly painfully.  
  
"You're going to have to trust me, Andrea. It's important if we're to defeat the Negaverse -"  
  
"Fighting against the Negaverse -" interrupted Ariane, determined to switch to a safer topic. "I don't see why that's so hard. All I did was yell and burn my ankle." Neo Queen Beryl stiffened, her face going very stern.  
  
"*That* thing," she said forcefully, "Was *minor*. Think gnat to tiger. The Negaverse has access to *much* stronger creatures and fighters. *Including* Queen Caprice herself - she is smarter, and therefore *stronger*, than Queen Beryl ever was -"  
  
"How do I fight?" interrupted Andrea in a small voice. "I don't have a wand..."  
  
Neo Queen Beryl blinked, momentarily stumped. "Uh... Ket?"  
  
A ghost of a brown cat appeared on the ground, gave Neo Queen Beryl a withering look, and did a backflip. An olive green wand with dark blue star on the tip materialized on the ground as the spectre vanished. Andrea bent to pick it up, glancing around the empty park nervously.  
  
*Say "Hydra Constellation Power!"* ordered Ket's dry voice in her mind. Andrea hesitated for a moment.  
  
"Hydra Constellation Power!" 


	13. Part 13 - The Thirteenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 13  
  
-  
  
It was past one in the morning when Connelly, Ariane and Andrea got back to the orphanage. Andrea couldn't think past sleep. The world could be quiet for just a while.  
  
-  
  
The Landscape faded in, wrong. An heavy heat hung over everything, and the air felt fuzzy and oppressive, as though before a storm.  
  
*Sailor Hydra...*  
  
Andrea found herself at the edge of the border once again, in scout uniform - a brown leotard, deep navy blue skirt and gloves, and olive green boots and bow. A voice had called her name - a female voice she didn't recognize. *Show yourself!* she commanded, for some reason trembling with anger. There was a low laugh to her left, and she spun around, raising her fists for no reason she could think of. Standing there was a woman who could have been herself in twenty years, her face deeply lined and scarred by battle.  
  
The woman smiled through the fever-haze surrounding Andrea. *I've watched you for years,* she said. *You were a silly and weak child, but now you've started to grow up. It's time to take your place among the adults. Are you ready?* Andrea found herself straining to pick up the sound of the woman's voice.  
  
*Who are you?* she growled through gritted teeth.  
  
*I am your grandmother. You can trust me. I'll be back to talk to you later.*  
  
*Queen Beryl,* she thought, and Queen Beryl laughed quietly, a condescending expression on her face. Andrea felt something stirring around her, and knew that it was the overpowering anger that was choking her voice. A curtain of air wavered before the smirking Beryl, and she vanished.  
  
She felt something behind her and spun again. Curran and Colwyn stood there, their faces somehow obscured. *Trust her,* they said. Andrea shook her head violently and closed her eyes.  
  
-  
  
The dead leaves swirling on the sidewalk complemented Andrea's thoughts perfectly. Why did dead things keep moving? They must have something to push them. Whatever it was that pushed Queen Beryl -  
  
Someone tapped her shoulder, and for a paralyzing moment she was sure it *was* Beryl. But when she turned, she saw it was Usagi - she insisted on being called Chibi-Usa - the girl from the orphanage who had invited Andrea to go for a walk in the park with her after classes.  
  
"Are you alright, Andrea? You looked so sad there for a moment," Usa could be amazingly irresponsible, but she genuinely cared about the well-being of others. Andrea admired that in her.  
  
"I'm okay," Andrea lied. "I was just thinking... thinking about my family."  
  
Chibi-Usa nodded sadly. "Did you ever know your mother? Or your father?"  
  
Andrea threw a glance at Usa, pretending to study the roots of a tree. She wanted to trust her, but now found herself questioning the good faith of everyone around her. Connelly hadn't needed to warn Andrea and Ariane that the Negaverse came in many forms. "I knew my parents, but not for long," Andrea said slowly. That was only a half-lie. She had known her father for a few years, and had been trying to forget that ever since. As for her mother - she'd known the one from her past life her for a few weeks, so that wasn't quite a lie.  
  
Usa smiled understandingly. "I knew my parents for a few years..." she trailed off, looking frightened, as if she had given away some deadly secret.  
  
Andrea pretended she hadn't noticed. She wandered over to a nearby bench and sat down to stare at the sky. Chibi-Usa followed her, but instead of looking at the sky, she watched Andrea, worriedly.  
  
Andrea tried to find the sun in the sky, but it was behind her, so she turned around in her seat and leaned over the back of the bench, staring at it and wondering how long she would have to stare to be blinded. It would go down in an hour or so, and then she might have another dream. She shivered.  
  
Something black appeared in the center of the sun. The black mote grew bigger and bigger until it blocked out the sun entirely. It took Andrea too long to realize that no bird was that big.  
  
"Usa," she choked. "Look."  
  
The other girl turned around, startled by Andrea's tone. "Oh, *shit*," she muttered.  
  
The bird-like creature, still too high up to see clearly, cawed triumphantly, its eyes glinting in the sunlight. Then it had tucked its wings to its sides and was diving directly for the park bench.  
  
Chibi-Usa grabbed Andrea's sleeve, trying to drag the frozen girl away from the bench. "Come *on*!" she shrieked frustratedly, wondering for the thousandth time what was *wrong* with people.  
  
The gryphonic creature was now near enough to make out more details. It had a very light coral crest, rust orange wings, and a black beak and chest. It was definitely bigger than the two girls.  
  
Andrea had just had an awful thought.  
  
The creature spread its wings just as it was about to hit the ground and swooped upward. It landed on a nearby tree branch and eyed the two coldly for a moment, considering. Chibi-Usa glared crazily at it for half a second, hand darting for her pocket - it flapped its wings nonchalantly, and a gale-force wind shoved the two to the ground.  
  
Usa jumped up and glanced about frantically, right hand tensing. Andrea's eyes were squeezed tightly closed - the park *looked* deserted - "No better time," she growled, and snatched a small pink wand with a crescent moon on the tip from her pocket. "Moon Prism Power!"  
  
Andrea looked slowly up in time to see Chibi-Usa hit the ground hard, thrown by a second gust of wind from the startled creature. Usa was dressed in a white leotard with a pink bow, a pink skirt, and red jewels in silver settings over her odd hairstyle.  
  
"Sugar Pink Heart Attack!" Sailor Chibi-Moon yelled at the top of her lungs, brandishing her wand. The flow of fireworks hit the creature hard on its half-spread wings, knocking it hard on its back in a pile of leaves. It made an angry cawing sound and struggled to get up, its talons clawing the air ineffectually. Sailor Chibi-Moon's giggle was cut off as it managed to hop awkwardly to its feet and started waddling towards her, an intent look on its face. She raised her wand threateningly, readying another attack -  
  
The giant bird made a swatting motion with one wing, an unnaturally strong wind knocking the wand out of her hand and into the bushes. Sailor Chibi-Moon dove after it, panicking. She half-turned at the bird's exultant cry, and started to panic at the sight of the creature carrying an unmoving Andrea away in its talons. "Gold Star Glitter Shower!" she yelled, words turning into a wail.  
  
The gold stars barely grazed the creature's crest, but for some reason the creature howled in pain, batting its wings frantically at its head. Andrea's yell was barely audible over the creature's agonized cries as she crashed into a bush and it hit the ground a few meters away. The sticky glitter left over from the attack had gotten into the creature's eyes - "Gold Star Glitter Shower!" Sailor Chibi Moon shouted again, aiming this time for the creature's exposed throat.  
  
Sailor Chibi Moon pumped her hands in the air as the stars split the creature's neck open. The creature shuddered helplessly as its unnaturally dark red blood spilled onto the ground. Sailor Chibi Moon's mind was already on how to dispose of it when it suddenly stopped moving, glowing a dull red. She raised her wand again as the creature slowly collapsed upon itself, features shifting and feathers disappearing.  
  
Then there was a red-haired young woman there, coated from head to toe with glitter, her upper body nearly destroyed. Her dead eyes were wide open.  
  
"Dora..." whispered Andrea's voice behind Sailor Chibi Moon. She turned to say something, but Andrea had fallen to the ground, weeping hysterically and covering her eyes. Usa heard sirens and shouts of, "It was coming this way!", and decided it would have to wait.  
  
-  
  
Note: Yes, I made up a new attack for Sailor Chibi Moon, but couldn't even come up with an interesting one. Aren't you glad you're reading this? 


	14. Part 14 - The Fourteenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 14  
  
-  
  
*Sailor Hydra.*  
  
-The fever was in her brain and she couldn't think.-  
  
*Who is it?* she asked in a monotone.  
  
-She had known these people in another time and why would so many not admit it and the fever was in her brain and she couldn't think about that.-  
  
*It's your grandmother," said Queen Beryl lightly, taking a step forward out of the fever. *We must talk.*  
  
-She couldn't argue like she had thought she could when she was awake because the fever was inside of her and she was inside now and could feel the heat and smell the death and she couldn't think about any of that.-  
  
*Yes. We - we must.* Andrea thought her voice cracked, and Queen Beryl smiled at her. *Tell me about Isadora. She was my... my friend... at the last orphanage...* Her voice did crack. *Did she work for you? Or... f-f-for someone else?*  
  
-She had thought of a someone else but now could see no one else this one was the one who was behind it all and she must be must be must be the fever was all there was and she couldn't think or speak that was not really her.-  
  
The former queen of the Negaverse smiled enigmatically. *In time. Now, you must tell me, what is the Earth like?*  
  
-She thought of the Earth and knew she ought to be there because the fever seems smaller when she is outside of it but she couldn't because death knows what she looks like now and these words blew to her ankles in the hot dead breeze.-  
  
*It is... very bright. And loud,* Andrea said shakily.  
  
-This was within her and was her and she had to had to had to say the truth because she got sick if she lied surrounded by herself and the fever fever fever the fever was in her brain and she she she maybe was not.-  
  
*Why are you asking me this?*  
  
*Are there wars?* Beryl pressed on gently.  
  
*Ye-es...*  
  
-The death was mingled in the fever and was making her bleed inside even inside and she would be too sick too sick if her overlarge mind weren't relieved of the death and the fever that would boil all the world and she couldn't think about any of this was someone thinking for her.-  
  
*And unnecessary deaths. Are there those?*  
  
-The death had to be removed something had to be done or the fever would sink down over everything and she would never be able to rest and she couldn't think.-  
  
*All the time.*  
  
-And she would die and couldn't think and this was not an argument because the alliance was decided for her for her she was weak to the fever.-  
  
*And unhappiness?*  
  
*Everywhere.*  
  
-But she could not envision happiness and could not remember being able to envision it all there was was the fever and this was not an argument she couldn't think.-  
  
*What would happen if the Negaverse were to take over the Earth?*  
  
*It would be ruled by evil.*  
  
-But she could not understand that now because the fever was all there was around her and so this was not an argument.-  
  
Curran and Colwyn appeared on either side of Queen Beryl. They smiled unsettlingly.  
  
-Something she had seen before she knew but who had been there who had been there and she knew that this was not an argument and felt she could sleep.-  
  
*But it would be under one rule. Everyone would be equal. There would be peace, and happiness. Doesn't what we're saying make sense?* one of the twins asked.  
  
-She heard herself speak and didn't know what she said because she was growing hollow and the words repeated themselves at her ankles in the hot dead breeze.-  
  
*No!... Yes.*  
  
*Listen to yourself!* an angry young woman screamed from behind her.  
  
-And she knew someone spoke to her but the fever was turning the air to a rank ocean and the words the four words of the attack or not attack name were painful now because it was under the ground and pulling at her through the soles of her feet and this was not an argument it was a play it was a game for the ones still watching still cool in the fever.-  
  
*We only want to help the Earth. It is a danger to itself. We must watch over it while it is still young,* said the other twin.  
  
-And she felt that herself float and the element of blank was fitting for the fact that she could not recollect herself, either, and the words meant nothing in the wind.-  
  
*And when it is somewhat more mature, we will release it and let it go on its own way,* said Queen Beryl.  
  
*But she wouldn't! She's drained the energy of people just so *she* can have it!* cried the voice again, sounding strangled. Something silenced it again.  
  
-And she knew that one did not understand that this was not an argument and she was absorbed and knew the fever was hers only hers but that was enough because they were within her and she should never have said the four words the attack that gave her the fever now.-  
  
*Regrettably, yes,* admitted Queen Beryl. *But we needed that energy to exert our control on the Earth.*  
  
*Help us, Sailor Hydra,* said the twin on the left. *We need your help to help the Earth.*  
  
-It meant nothing it all meant nothing but there was the fever and would it ever break and the four words blew to her ankles in the hot dead breeze.-  
  
*Help us,* all three said at once. Andrea observed that she was on one Side of the border, and they were all standing on the Other.  
  
-The four words that had saved lives floated all around in the hot dead breeze and she had made up those words for something impossible that she did not know could slowly overpower her mind so.-  
  
*Come to us,* Queen Beryl whispered.  
  
-The four words that had saved lives they had saved lives and brought them close beside her own life but life must end sometime the fever would think and the thoughts did not belong together but the fever was the thought that they did.-  
  
Andrea nodded slowly, and crossed over the border.  
  
-The fever would silence her silence her silence her keep her silent and the four words that were an attack that had seemed to bring not death but life were bringing something something else and she had said she would absorb but now was she to be absorbed there is no question.-  
  
As the Landscape faded, Andrea thought she heard a muffled sob.  
  
-She had said Hydra Inner Fire Absorb and now the circle began.-  
  
-  
  
"I'm sure you can see it's just like I told you. We were wrong to try so soon. She's too sick to fight the mind control," said Ket.  
  
"But what are we going to do now...?" whispered one of the others. 


	15. Part 15 - The Fifteenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 15  
  
-  
  
*Will the movie industry ever get sick of the Sailor Scouts?* Ariane wondered, fidgeting in her seat. *There's another movie about Sailor V playing across the theater, and a comedy about the Starlights coming out next month...* On the 3D screen, Sailor Moon stood over the unmoving body of a woman who bore a passing resemblance to Ariane, the other eight scouts ranged behind her. Sailor Moon took one step backward, and the walls shimmered gold for a moment as nine voices were heard saying, "You need us not now. But we shall return."  
  
Ariane held her breath as the nine scouts faded into the night, while the rational part of her mind reminded her that it hadn't been anything like that. They'd just walked home, leaving apologetic letters saying goodbye to their stunned families and friends. Sailor Uranus's scornful mention of "that crazy Cally girl" had puzzled historians ever since, but Ariane knew now that she'd been talking about Connelly -  
  
Ariane felt a shiver go down her spine, this time for good reason. Everyone loved the Sailor Scouts and hated the Negaverse; it was elementary, but where did it leave Ariane, in a world where no one ever seemed to know the whole truth? Would she someday be portrayed in a movie like this one? Would she be seen as friend or foe?  
  
Just one tangle in the knot that she had gotten caught up in... less than a month ago? And yesterday Andrea and another girl had been attacked by another sister, who had somehow been killed, leaving the girl too bewildered to say more than, "It was the Negaverse and a Sailor Scout!" and Andrea...  
  
Andrea spoke quietly, always in small words, and agreed with everything anyone said. She said she was tired and hid in her room, and couldn't look anyone in the eye. She must be in shock, Connelly had told Ariane, with a strange, knowing expression on her face.  
  
*Had Andrea killed their sister?* Yes, she clearly had. Ariane swallowed hard on the tears that always accompanied that thought, despite her inability to recall even the dead girl's name -  
  
- *She was Isadora, Sailor Megaera, the one who was so good at sculpting? Remember?* Connelly had told them, sobbing helplessly, and Ariane had cried without remembering, but Andrea had just looked away, and muttered the name once and stopped talking - and Connelly wouldn't say any more about her later -  
  
- What was Ariane supposed to *think*? And what was *Andrea* thinking?  
  
Ariane swallowed on tears. *How can I save the world - accomplish *anything* - if I'm always trying to figure this stuff *out*? The people we don't know, but do, the memories - how did Sailor Moon *do* it?*  
  
The movie was almost over, at least - the police investigators were studying the fictional note written in blood. Ariane wished she they'd gone to see some other movie instead - Connelly had clearly been misinformed when Mrs. Martin had told her this thing was historically accurate. Ariane had just gotten more and more depressed as the movie progressed - not a single positive Negaverse character...  
  
The screen finally faded to black, and the end credits began to roll past. Ariane let out a sigh. She and Andrea stood up and followed a muttering Connelly (she couldn't think of her any other way) to the exits in the back of the theater. Connelly glanced back at them and made a face at the screen, and Ariane nodded, sighing. Andrea just watched her feet.  
  
"What the - the door's locked!" yelled an irate man who was trying to turn the handle. He started banging on it. "Hey! Open the door!" A laugh swelled up in the back of the crowd. Ariane remembered something, involuntarily clenching a fist to hold onto the memory as she turned with the rest to the source of the hysterical giggling.  
  
A young woman dressed all in black leather stood there. She had red hair and violet eyes.  
  
"Oh, shit," whispered Ariane and Connelly simultaneously. The woman looked directly at them, and winked. Then she laughed again. Ariane's hand went for her wand, feverishly trying to decide if it was possible for her to hide her transformation. "What's wrong with you?!" demanded the man at the door. "Did you lock the door?"  
  
The woman stopped laughing, but didn't stop smiling, as she dramatically produced a wand from her jacket pocket. She slowly raised the wand to between her closed eyes with both hands. "*On the flash*," Connelly hissed into Ariane's ear. "It'll be long - she's a showoff -" Ariane spared half a moment to look for Andrea, but she seemed to have disappeared.  
  
The woman opened her eyes and screamed, with the edge of hysteria, "Alecto Star Power!"  
  
"Moon Reversal Power!" yelled Connelly into the hellish glare.  
  
"Cassiopeia Constellation Power!" Ariane joined in, running after the sound of Connelly's voice.  
  
As the glow died, Neo Queen Beryl and Sailor Cassiopeia stood in the aisle, facing a grinning woman in a black leotard with a deep ochre skirt and gloves, and a cream-colored bow on her chest.  
  
"Sailor scouts," breathed the crowd in one voice.  
  
"It's Queen Beryl!" yelled someone as though he'd made an independent discovery.  
  
Sailor Alecto let out a feral growl. "Alecto Solar Pull! *Come to me!*" she wailed. As a heavy yellow light formed around the crowd, silencing the panicked, Sailor Cassiopeia felt herself being drawn toward the woman - she began walking, step by halting step. Behind her, she felt Neo Queen Beryl was doing the same.  
  
*Hurricane Eye Calm! Nullify it!* Ket's voice snapped in Sailor Cassiopeia's mind. *Crazy woman likes her targets to be *arranged* -* Sailor Cassiopeia, with the distinct feeling that she was pushing against the tide, forced her hands upward and managed to cry, "Hurricane Eye Calm!" to the throng of people now walking towards the woman, their eyes glazed.  
  
The crowd shook off the spell all at once and, needed no direction to flee towards the corner of the theater opposite Sailor Alecto.  
  
*Good,* growled Ket, *She hates a clear playing field -*  
  
*Shut up,* returned Sailor Cassiopeia, who was watching to follow whatever attack Connelly was preparing with those weaving motions.  
  
"I am Sailor Alecto, and in the name of the Negaverse, I will drain your energy!" announced Sailor Alecto, apparently deciding the situation warranted yelling.  
  
Sailor Cassiopeia rolled her eyes - Neo Queen Beryl was doing the same. "Not if we have anything to say about it!" yelled Neo Queen Beryl, then, frustratedly as she lowered her hands, "Please, Belinda, don't *do* this!" Sailor Alecto smiled in fierce amusement, beginning to raise a hand for an attack.  
  
Sailor Cassiopeia didn't wait for her mother's apparently aborted attack - she held up an unnecessary fist and shouted, "Cassiopeia Calling Wind!" Sailor Alecto stumbled against the wind, her yell almost inaudible against the sound of the theater seats ripping out of the floor and being hurled at her. The crowd screamed under the storm of debris and grime the wind whipped up. Sailor Cassiopeia thought irrelevantly, *We might have to pay damages -*  
  
As the wind died away, Sailor Alecto triumphantly stumbled her way out from a pile of seats, limping slightly but otherwise uninjured. *Damn. How'd I miss...?* "Neo-Nega Final Scream!" cried Neo Queen Beryl.  
  
A cold draft whipped past Sailor Cassiopeia's ear, carrying an wisp of the deep blue fog the was moving in from all around to surround Alecto. Sailor Alecto was attempting to bat the fog away, apparently unsure what it was, but abruptly covered her ears, yelping in pain. A slight, high-pitched wailing was all Sailor Cassiopeia could hear, but the sound was painful enough to make Alecto double over, whimpering. Sailor Cassiopeia began, "Cassiopeia Hurric-"  
  
"Alecto Circle *Streams*!" Sailor Alecto shrieked, holding out one hand as she charged off blindly, trying to escape the cloud. A deep red loop of light unfolded slowly began to unfold in the center of the theater, looping around faster and faster as it grew. A man made the mistake of trying to push it away as it neared him, and jerked away his burnt arm with a scream of pain. Ket snapped, *Quick! It's gone if you break the loop -*  
  
"Oh, no, you don't!" growled Andrea's voice behind them. Neo Queen Beryl and Sailor Cassiopeia turned to see Sailor Hydra brandishing her wand and fiercely yelling, "Hydra Venom Fangs!"   
  
*Good. I was afraid she was going to freeze up again -* thought Sailor Cassiopeia.  
  
*No -* said Ket, sounding as though she were gritting her teeth. *Hurricane Eye Calm! Quick! She's switched sides!*  
  
*Switched *sides* -*  
  
The attack hit. 


	16. Part 16 - The Sixteenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
Note: Seeing as I wrote this thing nearly three years ago now, you'd think I'd have posted the whole thing by now, or at *least* stopped picking at it. But anyway, after four months, here's chapter sixteen, and I made a few changes to fourteen and fifteen.  
  
-  
  
Part 16  
  
-  
  
"Go 'way." Ariane felt like she could sleep forever, but that shaking kept rousing her.  
  
"Ariane! Wake *up*! This is *important*, you *idiot*!" her mother screamed at her. Ariane growled and struck at the sound of the voice, not *wanting* to train today - but then she opened her eyes and was looking up at Connelly, who had a black eye from the punch that Crown Princess Calida would never have let Princess Ariane land.  
  
"Andrea... she *switched sides*! Ket said she *switched sides* -" Ariane observed abstractly that she babbling.  
  
"Yes, she switched sides," snapped Connelly, yanking Ariane up by her shoulder. "That's *fairly* obvious considering we spent ten minutes - what's wrong with you?"  
  
"Why?" Ariane made herself say, shaking in exhaustion. Her vision was blurry, but she did notice that while she was still transformed, Connelly was back in her mundane form.  
  
"I *don't know*. Did you get hit in the *head* - oh. Yeah. I guess you did." Connelly quickly helped her lie down again and held a bottle of water to her lips, blushing bright red. "You don't remember any of the fight?" she demanded anxiously.  
  
"I remember fighting Sailor Alecto. And Andrea saying she'd drain people's energy," Ariane rasped.  
  
"Okay. Okay. Uh - okay. Ariane went after you with Hydra Venom Fangs - she grazed you in the head, but you seemed alright *then* -" Connelly's voice broke. "- I - I thought so, anyway, but I was distracted - got hit, too - but - you got over to the other side of the theater and hit Alecto hard with Calling Wind - she was burnt pretty badly, and she got *mad* at you. Used Alecto Mobius Threads three times, but Andrea stopped the attacks -"  
  
"Stopped it?" asked Ariane hoarsely.  
  
"I know - I know - but I don't know that it meant anything," said Connelly shakily. "Mobius Threads is a dangerous attack with even *one* use - it's this huge thread that grows and spins around, like Circle Streams, but it's a very *thin* thread that can slip between molecules, cut through *anything* - the only way to stop it's burning it. Andrea got it with Hydra Searching Flame, then - they thought I was out - I faked being unconscious for a minute - tried to talk Belinda - Sailor Alecto -" Connelly didn't want to use the name - Ariane suddenly guessed why, and shivered. "- talk Alecto down. That was when I used Neo-Nega Last Stone on Alecto. I got her."  
  
Connelly's voice had gone very flat, and Ariane shuddered a little. Connelly patted her arm with trembling hands, but kept staring straight ahead as she narrated. "Andrea destroyed the body with Hydra Last Strike and that knocked me out - the idea's to produce lots of carbon dioxide from the dead - and I just woke up a minute ago - look, can you get up yet?" Ariane tried to sit up again, and found that the spots that had been waiting for her the last time had given up.  
  
"I still gotta go lie down s-soon -" she trailed off as she saw the movie-goers lying on the ground, all unnaturally pale. There was a hissing sound coming from the doors -  
  
"Andrea drained their energy," said Connelly shortly. "The doors were melted closed, and I figured I'd let the police break them open. Now come on, use the healing move, then detransform -"  
  
Ariane shook of Connelly's hands - she didn't think it was right to do this with someone helping her stand - and held up her wand -  
  
"Cassiopeia Healing Slumber!"  
  
"Okay. Good," Ariane heard Connelly say in a satisfied tone as she was lowered to the floor once again.  
  
"Y-you didn't say it'd s-sap m-my energy t' do a lot of people," Ariane accused shakily.  
  
"You wouldn't have done it," replied Connelly reasonably.  
  
"Would *so*," growled Ariane, disgusted that Connelly thought her that callous, then more loudly. "Wh-why didn't you tell us - me - about what the other scouts' attacks did? All you did was list their *names* -"  
  
"Because there are over a hundred attacks for all twelve of you, and I didn't want you freezing up and worrying about the best strategy. You just need to hit hard and fast," said Connelly glibly. Ariane gritted her teeth in frustration - Connelly was *still* doing her "it's not important" act. *Why* was she so set on not giving any information about their past lives?! Aside from the brief period of mourning for Isadora, she'd been practically *mute* -  
  
"But the last two have been part of the same team, haven't they?" asked Ariane, shaking it off. She could at least prove that she was taking this seriously. "You said there were Sailors for the stars Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, and that Caprice had conquered those stars just because she liked their names. So I looked those names up - Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone were the three Erinyes, or Furies, the goddesses of vengeance in Greek mythology. So, isn't Sailor Tisiphone probably gonna be the next one who shows up?"  
  
"...yeah, maybe," admitted Connelly - she'd clearly missed that angle. "They didn't work together much, but their abilities were originally *meant* to complement one another - like Megaera's fire attack and Mobius Threads -"  
  
"*Tell* me, then -" One of the doors gave, and metal snapped and wailed around the flame of the torch.  
  
"I will. And about Andrea's attacks, too. When we get home."  
  
-  
  
Ariane was staring at ceiling, trying to think of a way to make herself wake up from her nightmare and be back in Asahikawa. Two dead sisters who turned and tried to kill her, a living twin who did the same, a third sister still living who thought herself destined to drown the earth in blood, a mother who wouldn't tell her anything and wouldn't tell her why - it was a dream. Maybe if she jumped around a lot or screamed at the top of her lungs, she'd fall off of her old bunkbed.  
  
Something knocked on the window, and Ariane dropped out of her reverie. She slowly drew her wand from under her pillow, her mind already forming the words of her first attack. She thought she hadn't made any noise, but someone banged on the window pane. "Let me in, Ariane," hissed a rough voice that Ariane knew she ought to recognize.  
  
"Cassiopeia Constellation Power!" she murmured, making a controlled fall from her bed to the floor. She crept up to the curtains slowly, prepared to attack. The banging continued. *Damnit, I *know* you're awake! Let me in! It's *Ket*!*  
  
She threw open the curtains, brandishing her wand. Andrea was standing outside the window, a supremely frustrated look on her face. Her eyes were green, not violet, and she was clinging to the windowsill in a way that suggested she didn't quite know how to stand on her own. *It's *me*,* growled the mental voice again. *Let me in FAST!* Ariane opened the window quickly and helped the clumsy - person, in. She was wearing a black ankle-length dress that couldn't have aided her dexterity.  
  
"I didn't know you could take over Andrea's -"  
  
"Shut up. This is important." Ket dropped to the floor on her back and closed her eyes. Ariane flinched, naturally assuming that Ket was hurt, but she kept talking. "Look, I thought I had it beat, but an old mind control thing's gotten hold of Andrea. It looks like Queen Bery, it's not - it's -"  
  
"Mind control - wh-*what*?! I -"  
  
"There's a goddamn *Negaverse mind control device* that was meant for *me* inside *Andrea* and she can't control her *actions*." Ket didn't try to get up, or even open her eyes, but Ariane got the idea she'd be flattened if she interrupted again. "I'm *trying* to break it again - but I'm not sure *I'm* the one who **can**. But I'm telling you *not to kill Andrea* - we *will* work it out and you *need* -"  
  
"But, what if she kills other people -" Ariane began. It occurred to her that she had once seen Andrea standing over the shredded body of someone named Rhyolite -  
  
"Damnit, *she won't*." Ket started to sit up, banging a hand on the floor - the wood splintered.  
  
"I don't know that we can *risk* it," said Ariane, recalling Connelly's explanations. "Andrea is the *strongest brute force attacker of the Nega Scouts* -"  
  
Ket surged up from the floor and hurled both her fists right into Ariane's eyes, knocking Ariane's wand across the floor and slamming her to the floor. Ket glared directly into her eyes, growling, "*Damnit*, you little *twit*, you don't even *know* what's going on -"  
  
"I don't need to," spat Ariane, feeling Princess Ariane's blood pumping through her veins, and shouldered Ket off of her and to the floor with a strength she didn't know she had. She dragged the wand towards her with her foot, gritting her teeth. "I know that Andrea will kill people if we don't -"  
  
"*You don't understand -*" Ket released her abruptly, standing up and looking around frantically. "*Damnit*, no *time* -" Ket turned to Ariane again, barely reining in her fury. "I'll get her cured whether I have your help or *not*!" Ket sprung out the window in an uncannily catlike motion, hissing, "Princesses!"  
  
Ariane started towards the window, yelling "Ket!" in a commanding tone, but a bright red light flashed briefly outside, and the parking lot was empty.  
  
Ariane slammed the window shut and turned around, seething. "Opened a *Nega Portal* - that goddamn arrogant disobedient little cat -"  
  
She stopped.  
  
That was Princess Ariane - the self-protective murderer and dictator of worlds - the one that silent Connelly must have hoped she could *escape*... the one who'd led a bloodier, more eventful life, a life that could just possibly dominate Ariane Erhlic's fourteen uncomplicated years...  
  
Ariane quietly detransformed and curled up under her blanket, thinking hopelessly of Asahikawa. 


	17. Part 17 - The Seventeenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 17  
  
-  
  
Ariane didn't want to go to Chibi-Usa's birthday party. She wanted to stare at the rain and brood. She wanted to go back to bed and watch the ceiling some more. She wanted to kill something, then wanted to stop the memories that came back now whenever she wasn't thinking of them. She didn't want to know that she'd killed four traitorous generals and been proud when Caprice nodded down at her. She didn't want to know that she'd caught her mother looking at a scrap of paper that was a picture of the earth and had thought of killing her then and there. She wanted to be Ariane Erhlic, in a world where her biggest worry was that she'd be adopted by someone who didn't have a computer.  
  
Connelly was a nice person. She wasn't crazy or evil. She was usually optimistic, was depressed, but not cripplingly, when her thoughts turned to her past, was censurous of the violent video games some of the other kids played, and had Mrs. Martin's dog trained to chase his tail for the younger kids when they cried. And Connelly had been Neo-Queen Beryl, the heir to the Negaverse. That was Ariane's only consolation.  
  
She remembered that she -  
  
Ariane snatched up Usa's gift and stormed out of the room. *I won't pay attention to them anymore,* she told herself firmly. *I'm different now.*  
  
She looked at Chibi-Usa's present again to distract herself - the gift itself was a blank journal with a yellow cover patterned with pink hearts, and the wrapping paper had almost the same pattern, and they both matched Usa's treasured old bedspread and pillow. Ariane and Connelly had the thought the journal was a find when Connelly took all of Usa's friends shopping for gifts, but then they'd discovered the matching paper that had thrilled Connelly beyond belief, and she'd bought enough of the stuff that everyone could wrap their gifts in it. Usa had sworn that she was going to open them all carefully and save every scrap -  
  
Ariane peeked in the open door of the common room and saw Usa holding up the largest box with one hand, eyeing it speculatively and guessing: "A horse? A car? Four trillion yen? A wrist phone?"  
  
"Oh, no," groaned Connelly at the last, covering her eyes. "If any of you got her a *phone*, I'm hiding it until she's twenty-one." The others burst into laughter as Usa put the box back on the table Connelly was guarding, looking piqued. Then she spotted Ariane and pounced.  
  
"Ha! More presents!" Usa snatched the package out of Ariane's hands and waved a hand at it, narrowing her eyes. "I predict - it's a pigeon!"  
  
"Darn. You got me," said Ariane, as everyone else in the room burst into laughter for some reason. "What?"  
  
"It's complicated," said Connelly, rubbing her eyes - Ariane noticed that *she* looked tired, too. It had been an uneventful week since Ket's appearance, but Ariane's insomnia seemingly could only get worse. "Are -"  
  
"She said you were sick," said Chibi-Usa, plopping the final gift onto the table and frowning at Ariane. "You look bad. Are you okay?"  
  
"Fine," said Ariane, who was by now used to Chibi-Usa'a bluntness. "Just a little tired. Where's the cake?" she asked, trying to sound a little more upbeat.  
  
Usa giggled. "Oh, Great Leader here always says she didn't get one -"  
  
"I saw it in the broom closet!" cried Lyssa, a tiny girl from the kindergarten who was clinging to her older sister's leg.  
  
"*Not* a good place for a cake," said Connelly authoritatively. Then she glanced at her watch. "Hm - it is about time for the cake -" All eyes were suddenly glued on her. Connelly looked up and shrugged theatrically. "Maybe it's here someplace -"  
  
"You hid it *again*!" Chria complained. "Why do you always *hide* the stupid cake?! It's idiotic -"  
  
"*I'll* find it!" announced Usa, and plowed off into the hall, the others following in her wake. Chria dithered for a moment, then followed, scowling at Ariane and Connelly.  
  
Ariane looked at Connelly warily. "Did something happen?"  
  
"No..." Connelly looked far away for a moment, then shook her head and turned her attention to Ariane resolutely. "Look, didn't you say something the other day about memories coming back?" she began again clumsily. Ariane hadn't - she shrugged uncommunicatively. "I'm assuming they're not good?"  
  
"No," said Ariane coldly. Connelly was silent for a long time, and Ariane started to turn away.  
  
"...listen. I know they feel like your memories, but you're going to have to pretend that they're not."  
  
"That's all you can *say*?!" demanded Andrea, spinning and glaring at Connelly. "Is that *all* you can *SAY*?!?! I'm the most evil person who ever fucking *lived* and -"  
  
"That's all I can say," said Connelly, spreading her hands helplessly. Her expression was open and full of pain. "You did these things, but it was a you in a completely different environment. You were raised in the Negaverse. It had might as well have been another person."  
  
"*It was me*," Ariane hissed. Connelly shrugged again.  
  
"And it was me. And Andrea. And Belinda and Isadora, who wanted *one, simple, life.*" Connelly's voice hardened.  
  
Ariane stared over Connelly's head for a long moment, then shook her head mutely.  
  
"Just pretend it wasn't you," Connelly repeated quietly. "Say, "that was Princess Ariane, and I am Ariane Erhlic." It's all you can do."  
  
Someone screamed, and Princess Ariane tasted blood. 


	18. Part 18 - The Eighteenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 18  
  
-  
  
Andrea had been sitting on the park bench for a while now, she wasn't sure exactly how long. She felt very calm now, but she thought she remembered sitting here and waiting nervously for someone. But then she had remembered that they weren't coming, and she had just smiled. And that was when she looked up and wondered how long she had been there.  
  
The air was very clear now - the leaves, the stars that were starting to come out, the city lights, were all cleaner and sharper than they'd been last time she'd seen them, whenever that was. She plucked a waxy leaf off of the bush next to her bench and smelled it, and touched the strange yellow dress that she didn't like much - she had always thought metallic fabrics were tacky - and decided that everything seemed much quieter. Was that it? No, the big change was that the air was cool.  
  
Oh. She didn't have a fever anymore. Why? Because she had had a dream. She remembered it.  
  
-  
  
The iron platform had a few traitors waiting to die on it. On the small silver balcony above, someone had just fallen.  
  
Ket was old as both a cat and a human, and deceptively clumsy when made the latter, but she was always so quick and so sharp-witted and she had killed so many people that it was impossible to think of her that way. She was Ket, and she was invincible. But someone who didn't know that had a gun.  
  
Sailor Hydra was bending over the human body of someone who wouldn't have gotten hurt if she'd just stayed a cat for the silly, inconsequential, normal sort of ceremony. *Stupid, stupid, stupid -* "Ket, Ket, Ket," she heard herself whispering tearfully. "Don't leave me now." She felt the eyes of her subjects burning into her back, but she didn't care. Not many things were more important than her power.  
  
"Kitten," said Ket. Her voice was a lot gentler than Andrea had thought was possible for her. "I'm going. Turn your back and finish the execution. It'll be the perfect show of strength -"  
  
"Yes," said Sailor Hydra suddenly, standing up suddenly. "There is."  
  
"What will you do?" asked Ket - she wasn't being gentle, she was just dying.  
  
*Ket is hurt too badly to save, even if I had any grasp of Sailor Cassiopeia's healing power,* Andrea heard herself thinking with an icy certainty. Time did not slow, as some people thought it did when someone died in front of you - her mind simply made the connections faster than the world could move. *Sailor Ursa Minor has a technique that can remove the soul briefly, a technique which I understand sufficiently to alter for a permanent transfer.*  
  
Sailor Hydra briefly raised her wand to her heart, then shoved it down to cover Ket's. "Hydra Inner Fire Absorb," she said in a monotone, as her thoughts shuddered to a halt.  
  
Ket's body trembled a little, like someone had poked her in the small of the back. Sailor Hydra saw black for a moment, and then a fiery silhouette of Ket rising to meet her imprinted on the inside of her eyelids. Then Sailor Hydra watched over Ket's shoulder, even as Andrea watched over hers, as Ket stood in Sailor Hydra's body and shoved down the lever that electrocuted the seventeen Hydrans.  
  
"*Let this be a lesson to you!*" Ket roared to the stunned crowd, her sharp intonation and glowing cat-green eyes making the change obvious. "The Negaverse is death's *master*, and death takes those that *we* bid it!" Ket would have died after just a few more seconds, and she was shivering like a cold little girl, and Sailor Hydra remembered that two years ago she had proudly told her aunt that she had personally killed four hundred seventy-two Hydran rebels, and then their families.  
  
Around then, Sailor Hydra had started feeling a little sick. It had stayed with her for the rest of her life, then fourteen more years.  
  
-  
  
Sailor Hydra was yelling in the Landscape. "Queen Beryl! Are you here?" The air was clear and dark, and no one answered. She smiled.  
  
It was a funny thing to remember - like reading her own suicide note -  
  
But that would have to wait. She had had a dream. She remembered it. And now she had to go fight. 


	19. Part 19 - The Nineteenth Part

The Other Side  
by Goz  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.  
  
Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.  
  
-  
  
Part 19  
  
-  
  
Someone had broken a window and fled the building, and someone else had tracked glass and some blood back in and then changed her mind and followed, but Sailor Cassiopeia couldn't care. Something inhuman was growling inside the open bedroom door just ahead, and a lunatic was in there screaming, "How *dare* you ruin my birthday party -"  
  
"- in the name of the moon, I will punish you!" Sailor Chibi Moon announced to the disconcerted creature standing in the remains of a bed as Sailor Cassiopeia and Neo Queen Beryl charged through the door. Sailor Cassiopeia grabbed the doorframe to keep from falling down. "Whaaaaat!?" screeched Neo Queen Beryl, stumbling.  
  
Sailor Chibi Moon looked at them, registered "Queen Beryl", raised her wand, registered, "Ariane", lowered it, and then spotted the glint of needles out of the corner of her eye and dropped to the floor. "*Fools!*" roared the wolflike creature in a halfway human voice. *Hurricane Eye Calm's not gonna work on something material -*  
  
"Event Horizon Terminal Draw - *STAY DOWN, USA*!" ordered Neo Queen Beryl, giving Sailor Cassiopeia a shove to the floor.  
  
Cassiopeia felt like she were falling up, but remembered enought to grab what she could of the carpet, managing to catch her ankles on the doorframe. The double-gravity had forced everything into slow motion - out of the corner of her eye, Cassiopeia could see Sailor Chibi Moon clinging stubbornly to where the bed had been bolted to the floor. She was sweating in her attempt to fold her body to keep her feet from touching the black hole that must have been forming before Neo Queen Beryl. Intercepting something with Event Horizon was a *dangerous* thing to try, especially indoors and with other people so close to Neo Queen Beryl - whatever attack those needles had been must have been *bad*.  
  
The air abruptly returned to Sailor Cassiopeia's lungs, and she forced herself unthinkingly to her feet. "Hailstorm Fury!"  
  
"Gold Star Glitter Shower!" Sailor Chibi Moon yelled in the same moment, crouching in her doorway, even as Neo Queen Beryl recovered enough to bleat, "Neo-Nega Final Scream!"  
  
The wind of Neo Queen Beryl's attack caught up the silver hail and golden glitter within its blue mist, seeming to crystalize for a half-second before all three attacks hit the creature. Its howl mingled with the sound of Neo Nega Final Scream as it thrashed dangerously within the fog. Sailor Chibi Moon stepped forward then, disregarding the youma. "*Whose side are you on?*" she demanded harshly. Cassiopeia could tell from Chibi Moon's posture that she was fully ready to take on the two of them in addition to the creature. Cassiopeia opened her mouth to try to explain -  
  
"*Yours!*" Neo Queen Beryl snapped at the children, weaving her hands in a complex variation on an infinity symbol. "Don't *bicker*, damnit - Unfinished Wheel Turn!" The blue fog was beginning to clear, and the creature's fur was wet with blood, but it was laughing - then Sailor Cassiopeia felt another shift in gravity. The air seemed to be solidifying in a loop around the creature - *This one throws the target around and damages his insides - but I'm supposed to -*  
  
A blinding blue-white light exploded from over the creature's head. "*Nega Grant Shape-Take!*" an ethereal voice wailed, as the creature's growling tone rose to an almost-normal human voice - "Tisiphone *Return* Fury!"  
  
The pull was coming from a different direction now - "They reflected the attack on her!" Sailor Cassiopeia yelled uselessly - Neo Queen Beryl was screeching somewhere within the persistent light. *- but I'm supposed to have an attack ready when it lets go of the target -*  
  
"*Hurricane Eye Calm!*"  
  
*- because Unfinished Turn Wheel intensifies the rejoining attack's original effect.*  
  
Neo Queen Beryl tumbled without to the ground beside Sailor Cassiopeia as the light died. Sailor Chibi Moon paused warily - there were two more Sailor Scouts here, and she wasn't certain she trusted the first one.  
  
There was an abnormally tall and emaciated young woman with red hair and violet eyes, wearing a black leotard with a skirt and gloves the color of old blood, and a dark puce bow and boots - Sailor Tisiphone, Ylsa, and only her grinning face was scratched. Beside her, smiling in a particularly unsettling way, was Sailor Hydra.  
  
"Andrea," Sailor Cassiopeia choked, unaware she was crying. "Please w-w-wake up -" She couldn't do what *Princess Ariane* had wanted, couldn't, couldn't -  
  
"There's no need to get emotional," said Sailor Hydra smoothly. She didn't stop smiling. Sailor Tisiphone's demonic grin broadened. "It's your fate, after all."  
  
- Sailor Cassiopeia very distinctly remembered hearing Andrea say, "Oh, fatalists like Ylsa, they think everyone's under the world's mind control all the time," -  
  
"Cassiopeia Hurricane -"  
  
"Hydra Searching Flame," said Sailor Hydra with quiet force. The seven heads flickered into existence before her and danced for a moment before moving in on Sailor Tisiphone.  
  
Sailor Hydra looked down at the hideously burnt body and said a little shakily, "It is fate. Accept it."  
  
-  
  
"....Andrea -"  
  
"Mom, I have to go someplace," said Andrea, looking up. Her eyes were a swirling mass of color. Neo Queen Beryl stepped back, frustrated.  
  
"*Where* -"  
  
"I'll tell you later," Andrea said quietly. "There's some stuff I've gotta find -" She looked over her shoulder as though someone had whispered in her ear, then looked back, and finished with an odd smile, "Seven others, Mom. And they told me where to look."  
  
"How would *the Negaverse* know -"  
  
"I have to go someplace now -" The blue-white light filled the room again. "- I won't be back alone!"  
  
-  
  
Author's Note: *reading over* ...well, here's to the end of the most uneven fanfic in history. On a related note, I'm almost not failing precalculus. 


End file.
